Every time I learn something new about Payday 2, I get disappointed in Payday 3. For the last ten years, Payday 2 has been one of the most consistently popular co-op shooters around. Absurd crossovers with properties like John Wick and Left 4 Dead and loads of new missions have turned into an absurd game about the most ridiculous crimes in history. Payday 2 is effectively an R-rated Fortnite, and Payday 3 seems intent on erasing that.
Payday 3 dials everything back down to zero and could easily be mistaken for a reboot. Most of the original crew return from the previous games, but seem to have forgotten where Payday 2 left off. Payday 3’s eightmission storyline is so serious and straightforward that it was hard to believe I was playing the sequel to a game where a character swaps bodies with the President of the United States after breaking into an ancient bunker beneath the White House.
While playing Payday 3, I was retroactively sold on Payday 2 and disappointed by the sequel’s reluctance to embrace its predecessor’s absurdity. But Payday 2 launched a decade ago as a very different thing than it eventually became, and Payday 3 could be on the same track. It’s one of the slickest co-op shooters I’ve played, but it’s held back by a frustrating emphasis on playing its missions a certain way.